ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the main narratives which have been used to explain conflict in the developing world. These placed a heavy emphasis on the role of grievance and the nature of post-colonial states, and this will be discussed further here through explorations of tribalism, ethnicity, post-colonial statehood and structural violence as lenses through which to analyse conflict. Though the quantitative models presented here have many shortcomings, the original greed and grievance model raised important questions about how wars are prolonged and highlighted the importance of shadow economies in funding conflict. Renewable resources are those which are constantly being produced, specifically at a rate which is higher than that at which they are being used. Much of the literature which attempted to identify and categorise different ethnic groups up to the twentieth century was based on ideas about physiognomy, suggesting that ethnic groups were physically different from each other and also that innate characteristics associated with particular groups be identified.
